WHY HONEY IS BETTER THAN SUGAR

Here you do not need to take my word for it if you do not wish to. Many of you still enjoy a nice teaspoon or two of sugar with your tea. I know, I used to, once upon a time. Because I am a beekeeper and have an obvious love for my bees, you may understandably detect a taste of bias in this post on why I am affirming that honey is better than sugar. It is not a question of taste. It is a question of your good health. Long before I discovered the magical world of beekeeping and honey, I had no idea that white sugar was the killer that it’s been labelled as today.

I also had no idea that honey was so good for us. Honey has properties that sugar cannot even come close to matching. Consuming raw, pure (organic) honey, for instance, will help boost your health both internally and externally. Carry on with your sugar habit and you may as well start digging your grave and climb on in. I was astounded to learn just over two years ago that not even supermarket fruit juice was good for you anymore. In fact, soda or soft drinks could be considered a healthier option.

This is purely because even the sugared variety of sodas has far less white sugar content than factory produced fruit juice. And in a normal can of soda, you are already consuming up to eight teaspoons of sugar. What a shocker. And that’s not all, in pretty much every form of processed food, from savoury meats, those you’d normally put on a sandwich, to bread and pastas, there’s that dastardly sugar again. It’s in the children’s cereal too, deliberately so. The lie is given that this is to encourage children to eat their porridge.

But the ploy is to encourage moms to buy more of the marketed product. No brands or manufacturers need to be mentioned here. If you are remotely obese, I’d take a serious look at what’s stored in my cupboard right now, if I was you. And I bet you that as things stand now, there’s probably no honey, not even the processed kind (no good for you anyway, loaded with sugar) in your cupboard. But, we’re positive folks, and it’s never too late to change our ways. Before I close this post off on why honey (raw, pure, organic honey, that is) is so much better than refined, processed white sugar, I’d like to recommend that you look up and download the award-winning American documentary, Fed Up, and see just how bad things got where consuming toxic food was concerned and what is being done to change this noxious habit into a healthy, lifesaving habit.

For the bees’ sake, I’d also like you to take a look at Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Leonardo di Caprio’s The Eleventh Hour. There are wonderful inserts that include David Suzuki’s takes on how we can save our ecosystems, the bees’ too. Around the world today, governments are introducing sugar taxes. Call me cynical but I’m not entirely sure that this tax is really going to wean poor people off their sugar habits. I’d also like to know just how much of these tax monies governments are pumping into revitalising collapsed bee colonies and the like.

Without any guess work, I could give you the short answer to that request of mine. In the meantime, here’s a brief summary on why sugar is bad for us and why raw honey is good for us.

BAD WHITE SUGAR

Nothing good about it at all

Sugar has high calorie content but contains no essential nutrients such as proteins, vitamins, minerals and essential fats. It’s also bad for teeth because it contains easily digestible energy that encourages bad bacteria in the mouth.

Too much fructose

Sugar enters the bloodstream directly from the digestive tract, carrying with it glucose and fructose. The body does not need high levels of fructose. As a consequence, excess fructose needs to be processed by the liver. This puts strain on the liver and is converted into fat.

Fatty liver disease

Too much glucose in the blood is toxic and can cause diabetic diseases. Sugar causes insulin resistance. Insulin is an essential hormone in the body. Blood sugar, on the other hand, encourages cells to burn glucose instead of fat.

Type 2 diabetes

As a result of excess sugar in the bloodstream, insulin resistance is weakened and the body’s pancreas is not able to produce enough insulin to keep blood sugar levels low. This interference with necessary insulin levels can cause type 2 diabetes.

Cancer

Interrupted insulin levels due to high consumption of sugar can cause cancer. Additionally, metabolic functions are weakened, causing inflammations.

GOOD RAW HONEY

Rich in antioxidants

Raw honey has as much antioxidants as those found in fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants help protect the body from cell damage caused by free radicals. Honey’s antioxidants also help prevent heart disease.

Antibacterial

Raw honey kills unwanted bacteria. The effectiveness of its antibacterial properties depends, however, on the type of honey produced. In turn, the ingredients of honey are largely dependent on what type of plants the bees obtain their honey from.

Healing properties

Raw honey is an effective germ killer. This is due to its additional antibacterial properties. It boosts healing times and can reduce infections in wounds.

UV resistant

The honey contains phytonutrients derived from plants. These originally helped protect the plants from unwanted insects and the sun’s strong UV rays. Raw honey also contains anti-inflammatory properties, also obtained from phytonutrients.

Good for digestion

Take one to two teaspoons of raw honey on an empty stomach and you soothe discomfort or even pain.

A good flu buster

Honey in general is famous for treating the common cold. It’s good for treating sore throats too. It’s a far better natural remedy than over the counter cough medicines. All it takes is hot tea and a slice of lemon added to it.